America’s National Parks At a Glance
by
Thomas Crochetiere
“America’s best idea” ~ our National Park units!
As of 2016, the United States National Park Service oversees 410 park units. They are found in all 50 states, including Washington, D.C., and in the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Listed by state and territory, this book gives you a glance at these amazing National Parks, including the disbanded and proposed units. Whether it is in the mountains, the deserts, the prairies, on waterways or in urban areas, America’s National Park units are unique and different from one another. Each unit is a jewel amid the national treasure and they all have a story to tell, if you have the time to listen.
Thomas Crochetiere
Also by Thomas Crochetiere
Remembering my Miss Vicki – a Biography [2011]
Our Life Well-Lived – a Memoir [2012]
Cover photo of Half Dome at Yosemite National Park
by Thomas Crochetiere
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or advertisement for this book.
Copyright © 2015 by Thomas Crochetiere
First Edition-First Release, 2016
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2664-8
Published in the United States of America
Edited by: Thomas Crochetiere
Proofread by: Jeannie Fitzsimmons and David Smith
Photos courtesy of the National Park Service and Thomas Crochetiere
“There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
“Growth and development of national park and reserve programs throughout the world are important to the welfare of the people of every nation. We must have places where we can find release from the tensions of an increasingly industrialized civilization, where we can have personal contact with the natural environment which sustains us. To this end, permanent preservation of the outstanding scenic and scientific assets of every country, and of the magnificent and varied wildlife which can be so easily endangered by human activity, is imperative. National parks and reserves are an integral aspect of intelligent use of natural resources. It is the course of wisdom to set aside an ample portion of our national resources as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring that future generations may know the majesty of the earth as we know it today.”
~ John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
Acknowledgments
I wish to personally thank the following people for their comments and suggestions that helped to shape this book: my wife Sandra Crochetiere, friends Jeannie and Gerald Fitzsimmons and Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith.
My thanks also go out to Arin Tripp for allowing me to share her beautiful watercolor at the end of this book and to the National Park Service for the use of their wonderful photos throughout the book.
An Introduction to the National Park Service
“America’s best idea” - our National Park units! On March 1, 1872, the United States Congress, under President Ulysses S. Grant, established Yellowstone National Park. Our first National Park, Yellowstone is located in what were then the Territories of Wyoming and Montana. This park was established “as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” to be administered by the Department of the Interior.
Due to poaching and destruction of natural resources, the U.S. Army arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs in 1886 and built Camp Sheridan for the protection of the Yellowstone National Park. Over the next 22-years, the army constructed permanent structures and Camp Sheridan was renamed Fort Yellowstone. During this time, the army developed their own policies and regulations that permitted public access while protecting wildlife and natural resources.
In the years following the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, the United States authorized additional National Parks and Monuments. Many of these parks were carved from federal lands in the west and were also placed under the control of the Secretary of the Interior. During this time, natural and historical areas and other monument areas were administered by the War Department and the U.S. Forest Service. No single agency provided unified management of the various federal parklands.
Additions to the National Park System are now generally made through acts of Congress and National Parks can only be created through such acts. Under the “Antiquities Act” of 1906, the President has authority to establish National Monuments on lands already managed by the U.S. government. Devils Tower in Wyoming was declared to be the first United States National Monument on September 23, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt using the Antiquities Act.
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act” creating the National Park Service. This new federal bureau was still under the Department of the Interior and responsible for protecting the 35 National Parks and Monuments it managed and those yet to be established. The mission of the NPS is “to conserve the scenery and natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
American industrialist and conservationist, Stephen Mather led a public campaign to promote the creation of this unified federal agency to oversee National Park administration. On May 16, 1917, Mather was appointed as the first Director of the National Park Service. He served in that capacity until January 8, 1929, during which time he created a professional civil service organization, increased the numbers of Parks and National Monuments and established systematic criteria for adding new properties to the federal system.
When the National Park Service was created, many of the management principles developed by the army were adopted by the NPS. On October 31, 1918, the army turned over control to the National Park Service, ending their roll with the parks.
In 1933, an Executive Order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferring 56 National Monument and Military sites from the War Department and Forest Service to the National Park Service. This action was a major step in the development of today’s National Parks System; a system that includes areas of historical as well as scenic and scientific importance.
In 1970, the “General Authorities Act” was signed to improve the administration of the National Park System. “Congress